Have you checked the tags in the expensive stores? most of their stuff comes from outside the US, too. Most of what we buy everywhere is produced by what would be considered sweatshops here in our culture.
Most "Mom & Pop" operations pay minimum wage, or not much more, because that's what they can afford to pay. Usually no benefits package, either, for the same reason.
Am i angry at WalMart for forgetting who made them as huge as they are? YOU BETCHA! Do I hope they wake up before they go bankrupt like KMart? YOU BETCHA! Am I going to shop elsewhere when i can afford it in personal protest of their decision about the fabric departments? YOU BETCHA!
However, am I going to always spend anywhere from half to twice as much (on merchandise, plus the extra gas and time it takes to shop elsewhere) on everything? am I going to criticize those who have no other choice but to get everything they can at WalMart because they can't afford to shop anywhere else? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Not just NO ... YOU-KNOW-WHERE NO!
The left-wing has singled out WalMart because it's the biggest target on the range right now. Most of what's wrong with WalMart is wrong with virtually every other business in the world. Some of the information presented in the smear campaign is totally true. Some of it is twisted truth. The rest is only half-truth, which makes it also half-lies. The insulting irony is that the campaign against WalMart and similar corporations is waged by people so stinkin' rich their personal assistants can shop wherever they want, whenever they want. They have an agenda to change our culture in ways that go far beyond WalMart and that most of us wouldn't want to see happen.
There are no easy answers to this. Thanks to all the bad publicity about WalMart's original plan to wipe out all fabric departments in every store, they have at least backed off to a plan to eliminate some, reduce others, and leave some intact based on customer reaction and sales in each store. In addition to online petitions and snail/email campaigns to corporate HQ, the "battle" must also be waged in each community. Phone calls, letters, personal chats with local management must come from enough customers in each area to "inspire" those local managers to fight for their fabrics.
Money talks. Complaints alone fall on deaf ears. Here's my crackpot suggestion and request for the day:
if you are a regular WM fabric customer, keep buying. Make the calls, write the letters, talk to the fabric ladies and local managers. Make at least one purchase a month - even if it's just a little something for your stash.
I'm very fortunate. I can afford to spend a little more on fabric and supplies if i absolutely have to. Not Quilt Shop prices, but a little more. So I'll get what I can at WM then add hours to my shopping time by getting the rest online. If I'm out of town, as goofy as it might sound, if there's a WM selling fabrics, I make sure to buy some in hope it'll make a difference to WM-dependent sewers in that community.
if you don't normally buy so much as a spool of thread from WM, but care about those for whom it's WM fabric or nothing, do the same ... write, call, nag, and buy a little something (use it for quilts to donate to charity) as a show of solidarity and support for the cause.
best of luck to all of us. :?